Role of church in parliament and schools questioned as census shows 5.5m fewer holders of faith in England and Wales

Census results revealing that England is no longer a majority-Christian country have sparked calls for an end to the churchas role in parliament and schools, while Leicester and Birmingham became the first UK cities with aminority majoritiesa.

For the first time in a census, less than half of the population of England and Wales a 27.5 million people a described themselves as aChristiana, 5.5 million fewer than in 2011. It triggered calls for urgent reform of laws requiring Christian teaching and worship in schools and Church of England bishops to sit in the House of Lords.

• Rashfordas two goals give England 3-0 win over Wales
• Southgateas side now face Senegal in last 16 on Sunday

Moments after England eased into the last 16 of this World Cup with a painlessly efficient 3-0 victory against Wales, Marcus Rashford jogged over to supporters and began to frenetically pump his fists. It was a moment of release a and sweet resurrection.

Having slayed the Welsh dragon, Gareth Southgateas Three Lions will next take on the Lions of Teranga, as Senegalas national team is called, on Sunday evening. Yet as Englandas players celebrated the focus inevitably gravitated towards Rashford.

Tory-led Essex authority is on brink of bankruptcy and has appealed to government for emergency bailout

A Tory-led council has admitted a series of disastrous investments in risky commercial projects caused it to run up an unprecedented deficit of nearly APS500m and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.

The staggering scale of the catastrophe at Thurrock council in Essex a one of the biggest ever financial disasters in local government a is contained in an internal report made to the councilas cabinet, which reveals it has lost APS275m on investments it made in solar energy and other businesses, and has set aside a further APS130m this year to pay back investment debts.

Kearne Solanke and Charlie Bartolo were stabbed to death just a mile apart in south-east London

Two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murdering two 16-year-old boys stabbed to death just a mile apart in south-east London, police have said.

Kearne Solanke was knifed in Titmuss Avenue, Thamesmead, and Charlie Bartolo was found in Sewell Road, Abbey Wood, on Saturday.

Chinese state broadcaster transmits from Chiswick studio despite Ofcom revoking UK licence last year

Franceas media regulator is under pressure to withdraw a licence that allows the Chinese state broadcaster to beam its programmes across Europe from a studio in west London.

Ofcom revoked the organisationas licence to transmit in the UK last year but the China Global Television Network (CGTN) was able to continue broadcasting following authorisation from the French authority.

European firms urged to donate spare parts after sustained Russian strikes on power plants and substations

• Russia-Ukraine war a latest news updates

Ukraineas supplies of spare parts for its battered electricity grid are running out amid sustained Russian bombing, and European companies are being asked to urgently donate surplus kit to help the country get through the winter.

There were power cuts lasting 48 hours or more across the country last week after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks, the latest step in a wave of bombings targeting power plants and substations which route energy around the network.

More than 4,500 people sign petition asking for help for those struggling to find independent accommodation

• Russia-Ukraine war a latest news updates

Ukrainian refugees and their hosts have delivered a petition to Downing Street signed by more than 4,500 people calling on the government to provide housing support for those struggling or unable to find independent accommodation.

Krish Kandiah, the founder of Sanctuary Foundation, the charity behind the petition, was accompanied by Ukrainian refugees including nine-year-old Danylo from Kyiv, who knocked on 10 Downing Street to deliver the petition on Tuesday.

After Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, this is expected to be the hardest winter in Ukraine since the second world war

The defining image of the current state of the war in Ukraine a and at the same time a metaphor for the entire country a is the snow-covered rubble of a residential building split in two by a Russian bomb in the town of Borodianka.

Some people who lived in that building have died as a result of the conflict. Others have managed to escape, joining the great exodus of refugees toward Europe. Some are now living in a dormitory on the outskirts of the town, struggling, like millions of other Ukrainians, with the nightmare of what is expected to be the hardest winter in the countryas history since the second world war.

Top left: residents of Borodianka disembark from a bus in a street heavily bombed by Russia. Top right: the rubble of a house in Borodianka. Above: an elderly woman walks by the snow-covered rubble of a residential building in Borodianka

Fans in Wrexham, gathered for what proved teamas last game of first World Cup in 64 years, say contest has boosted national profile

They had come, wearing their bucket hats and bright red shirts, in hope rather than expectation.

As Walesas first appearance at the football World Cup for 64 years was ended by England, the fans left Wrexhamas fan zones disappointed but unbowed, still proud of their teamas achievements.

Minority ethnic people make up 59% and 51% of respective populations in UKas first asuper-diversea cities

Leicester and Birmingham have become the first asuper-diversea cities in the UK, where most people are from black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, according to the 2021 census.

A total of 59% of people in Leicester are from minority ethnic backgrounds, while 51% of Birminghamas population are people of colour, as are 54% in Luton, according to the data. Across England and Wales, 18% of people are BAME.

Robert Downey Sr put his son in wild underground movies and gave him access to drugs. So what happened when Downey Jr finally turned the cameras on his dad?

In his fatheras underground western Greaseras Palace, a seven-year-old Robert Downey Jr plays, in his own words, aa boy who got his neck slit by Goda. This, perhaps, explains a lot. Downey Jr grew up on Robert Downey Sras film sets in the 70s and 80s, amid what he calls aa cacophony of creativitya, at the heart of the counterculture cinema scene fuelled by acigarettes and weed and boozea. He slept in a cot wedged against an editing desk, got taken to see X-rated films such as La Grande Bouffe at an absurdly young age, and went on a cross-country road trip as a kid where he awas in charge of the hash pipea.

In the twilight of his fatheras years, Downey Jr wanted some answers about why his father didnat take better care of him. The resulting documentary a called Sr, with remorseless family logic a acts as part tribute, part therapy session and part last hurrah. aYou,a Downey Jr tells his father, adid not give a mad fuck, did you?a

The money-saving expert and most trusted man in Britain has hard a and obvious - lessons for culture select committee

Hereas a thought. One that should keep some MPs awake at night. Are politicians intrinsically untrustworthy? Are only people who are predisposed to being economical with the truth attracted to a career in public life?

Or are they a misunderstood bunch? The good guys. Just ordinary men and women who want to make the world a better place. Itas just the nature of the job that forces them into some uneasy compromises with the truth.

Ex-followers of Universal Church of the Kingdom of God say they felt pressure to give money and were told demons caused mental health issues

Rachael Reign, 29, remembers feeling nervous the first time she hit record on Instagram Live. She was about to start speaking publicly about a group that she says had consumed virtually her entire life: the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG).

Walking down the street in south London when she was 13 years old, Reign had been approached by a church member who told her about the Victory youth group (VYG), part of the church that offered activities for young people.

Veterans of Hong Kongas 2019 protests see echoes in mainlandas anti-Covid anger, but fear a similar outcome

Jack*, a Hongkonger, used to have a grim view of mainland Chinese people, but the protests over anti-Covid restrictions that exploded across China last weekend changed his view.

aBefore, I thought they were mostly the arrogant and nationalistic people who just cared only about safeguarding aone Chinaa and the [Communist] party, and who boasted about the superiority of China,a said the 35-year-old IT professional, who did not want to give his real name for fear of repercussions from Beijing.

There are more pagans, fewer French speakers and 2.5 million households are of more than one ethnic group

Shamanism is expanding faster than any other religion, with the number of people saying they practise it rising from 650 in 2011 to 8,000 in 2021 in England and Wales. The result might prove controversial, as the Shamanism UK website asserts ait is not a religion, more an authentic expression of mankindas spiritualitya.

After its festive ad campaign tried to spread some holiday cheer, the fashion house Balenciaga has been judged the sinner

Very early days of course, but at this stage youad probably judge that John Lewisas Christmas ad campaign was going better than Balenciagaas. This is a fast-developing festive cancellation shitstorm, so forgive me if I have missed any major staging posts across the past few days. But as of this morning, the luxury fashion house has: issued a mushrooming series of apologies for an ad series featuring children holding handbags crafted from teddy bears dressed in bondage outfits; deleted its entire Instagram history; had a confected industry award withheld from its resident creative genius; been exposed for an earlier ad campaign that featured casually placed a| hang on, let me get my hazmat gloves a| US supreme court documents relating to a case involving child abuse images; served a blame-shifting $25m lawsuit against the producer of that ad; held crisis talks with Kim Kardashian who has herself issued some archbishop of Canterbury-style statement about her shock and disgust about the BDSM cuddly toy ads; and become the lightning rod for a raging attack on liberal values, from anyone unfashionably accessorised with common sense to standard alt-right suspects, to the full QAnon wingnuts.

Honestly, you try to spread a little holiday cheer by getting some sad-looking children to hold up your bondage teddy bear handbags, and this is the thanks you get. Short of shooting the ad campaign in the basement of the pizzeria in which Hillary Clinton was conspiracy-theorised as masterminding a paedophile ring, itas hard to see where Balenciaga could have been more extra, creatively speaking. I bet they wish theyad just done a big picture of Santa, sticking some of their gopping sock trainers under the tree of a bolshie Surrey injectables trainee, but the insistence that the market is something more edgily high-art than the reality is the fashion industryas central creed.

In 1941, Churchill said to the US: agive us the tools and we will finish the joba. Zelenskiy is saying the same to us a and we should listen

In a 1941 speech on a Royal Navy ship, Winston Churchill directed his final comments to the US: aGive us the tools, and we will finish the job.a After a significant victory in Kherson, and standing at the gates of Crimea facing a Russian army desperately trying to shore up its ramshackle defences, Ukraine has the troops and morale to defend what it has. However, despite some western assistance, the Ukrainians lack the tools a tanks, missiles and aircraft a to retake their land and impose strategic defeat on the Russians. If the west, and especially the US, is serious about helping to protect Ukraine, decisions on stepping up military assistance need to be made now. If Ukraine is to be able to secure its future after victory a assuming that is what the west truly wants a its forces need to begin to transition to Nato-standard equipment.

The US has not yet declared a political or military objective. However, in April the US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, said he wanted ato see Russia weakened to the point where it canat do things like invade Ukrainea. Is it the intention of the United States genuinely to support military efforts to return Ukraineas internationally recognised borders? Or does it instead suit US and western decision-makers to support a long war with Ukrainian forces used as proxies to bleed out Russiaas armed forces? Obviously, these are not at all the same thing. Decisions need to be made very soon about increasing military support, and those decisions will tell us which objective is being pursued.

Frank Ledwidge is a barrister and former military officer who has served in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan

Why do big brands think they have to be edgy? And yes, I am also talking about you Balenciaga

You know what I would like a major manufacturer of tampons to do? Make tampons. You know what I wouldnat like them to do? Make creepy sex jokes on Twitter. This is a not-so-subtle reference to Tampax, which caused large swathes of the internet to see red after an off-colour tweet last week. aYouare in their DMs,a Tampax tweeted. aWeare in them. We are not the same.a

I spend a good 60% of my waking hours on Twitter. Maybe you donat. If we are not the same then you might have no idea what on earth Tampax was on about. (Good for you!) Essentially, its joke was a mashup of two popular memes. The plain English translation reads: aYouare flirting with them via direct message, Iam in their vagina. Ha ha, Iam better than you.a

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Overnight, a golf ball-sized lump appeared on my toe a and all sorts of delicious things had to disappear from my diet

I wake to searing pain in my right foot, the worst pain Iave ever felt. Worse than the time I broke my back after plummeting 16ft from a cricket practice net, worse than when a rusty nail, jutting out from a rickety armchair, bored into my soft infant arm and worse than any grief from my teeth over the years. I switch on the light, gently remove the covers and discover an angry red lump, the size and shape of a golf ball, pulsing on the big toe of my right foot. I have no idea how this happened. Itas like Iave been sucked into a cartoon overnight, and Daffy Duck has whacked me with an Acme hammer.

In my non-expert opinion, the toe looks broken. I think I should go to a hospital, but I reason that the NHS is too busy and what can they do about a broken toe except say ayou have a broken toea and send me on my way with crutches and painkillers. Also, Iam too lazy. In fact, thatas the real reason I donat go; the NHS bit was to make me look good in your eyes. Soz.

Daniel Lavelle writes on mental health, homelessness and social care

Buying out Chinaas stake was inevitable but the government still has the onerous task of finding committed investors

Another day, another aconfirmationa that the government plans to build the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk a surely the amost announceda project in UK infrastructure history. The latest update, though, contained a genuine sign of seriousness: the Chinese are being paid to go away.

China General Nuclear (CGN), a state-backed firm, owned a 20% stake in the fledgling project and had, in effect, a right to subscribe to maintain its holding through the various funding rounds a just as it did at Hinkley Point C in Somerset. In practice, any form of Chinese involvement in Sizewell has been impossible for at least a year.

The protestersa cry of awoman, life, freedoma is inspiring, but many people in the US quit listening after the first word

Itas been more than two months since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested by Iranas so-called guidance patrol for incorrectly wearing her hijab, died in police custody. The official report blamed her death on heart failure, but eyewitnesses and her family insist that she was so severely beaten that she suffered a fatal brain injury. Since then, protests have raged across Iran despite the brutality of the governmentas response. Over 400 people have been killed; an unknown number of journalists and demonstrators have been imprisoned or disappeared. Hundreds have been blinded by rubber bullets and metal pellets fired into crowds of protesters. Popular athletes a soccer star Voria Ghafouri and champion climber Elnaz Rekabi a have been detained for criticizing, or appearing to criticize, the government.

Iranas Revolutionary Guards have begun targeting children. At least 58 young Iranians have been murdered, five of them within one recent week. The government seems to believe that terror for oneas children is the most effective way to keep dissidents at home and off the streets.

Mounting evidence of dirty tricks against prospective MPs canat be dismissed as leftwing sour grapes. We were promised a abroad churcha

Britain will almost certainly have a Labour government in two yearsa time: you have the Toriesa unprecedented self-immolation to thank for that. Debating, then, how Rishi Sunakas successors will govern is a democratic imperative. To some of Keir Starmeras more zealous supporters, scrutinising the opposition is an act of treachery that simply makes a Tory government more likely. Welcome to aSchrAPdingeras lefta: where the left of the party is simultaneously so irrelevant and toxic that it must be marginalised, but so powerful it can help determine the result of general elections.

In his pitch for the Labour leadership, Starmer promised that under his watch the party would be a abroad churcha, and that he would restore trust in Labour through aunitya. To underline that this wasnat just empty rhetoric, he said that the selection of Labour candidates aneeds to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates. Local party members should select their candidates for every election.a To paraphrase Karl Marx, all that is a Starmer promise melts into air: but this particular issue has political consequences that go far beyond internal Labour politics.

The public have accepted that Britain is not just populated by white people a and have stopped imagining that it could ever be otherwise

In 1968, the Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered probably the most inflammatory address ever given by a senior British politician. aAs I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding,a he declared. aLike the Roman, I seem to see athe River Tiber foaming with much blooda.a The bloodletting, he anticipated, would be taking place because of a race war. Seeing migrants arrive from Britainas former colonies in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia was, Powell said, alike watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyrea. Britain in the half century since has repudiated Powellas racist prophecy. Non-white immigrants and their children are not an existential threat to this country, but rather the source of some its most celebrated achievements.

Birmingham, the city in which Powell gave his arivers of blooda speech, has quietly become among the countryas most diverse places. Along with London, Leicester, Manchester and Luton, it is part of an urban England that is fast becoming more black and brown than white. About four in 10 people in Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Peterborough are non-white. The figure, according to the 2021 census published on Tuesday, is roughly one in four in Bristol and Leeds. Despite the best efforts of politicians like Powell and his ilk to turn people against each other on the basis of race and ethnicity, a more multiracial, multicultural country has become a feature of modern life. It is progress that the public have overwhelmingly accepted that Britain is not just populated by white people a and have stopped imagining that it could ever be otherwise.

Huge subsidies for US-based low-carbon manufacturers are posing big problems for EU leaders

In a slick General Motors advert aired during last yearas Super Bowl, the actor and comedian Will Ferrell took patriotic umbrage at Norwayas ability to sell more electric vehicles per capita than the US. aNorwayas beating us at EVs!a, Ferrell lamented, before promoting GMas latest battery technology to the watching millions.

Almost two years on, the angst is being felt on the other side of the Atlantic. Following on from President Joe Bidenas aBuy Americaa rules for infrastructure, his Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will deliver, from January, almost $370bn worth of subsidies and tax breaks to US-based companies involved in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Around $50bn will come in the form of tax credits to persuade Americans to buy electric vehicles made in North America (Canada and Mexico were included in the deal after initially being left out).

Readers on how years of poor Tory leadership mean there is no end in sight to the chronic shortage of homes

John Harris dissects key aspects of the housing acrisisa in a typically thoughtful and powerful way (The Tories are tearing themselves apart over housing a but this is another crisis of their own making, 27 November). But on the way he displays a crucial misunderstanding. There is no presumption in favour of development in the planning system; itas a presumption in favour of sustainable development a something with which surely no one could disagree? This is an egregious example of the Tory use of sophistry that has made a massive contribution to the issue that Harris so ably describes. Far from being an objective, science-based definition, it is in reality a circular argument that the government inserted in the national planning guidance.

In effect, asustainablea is what the government, Humpty Dumpty-like, says it is. The assessment of major housing proposals, which so often go to appeal, is comically perfunctory, the overriding criterion being the supply of new housing, however and wherever built. Many people participate in this charade. We have been building in unsustainability a carbon emissions, destruction of habitat, poor health and unaffordability a throughout the last 12 years. The cost of retrofitting will be astronomical. We need the houses we need. Campaigners cannot morally deny that, but development must be based on sound sustainability principles and by applying rigorous tests that are available but are never used effectively.

Linda Saltwell of ADHD Aware says many people realise they need a referral only when they trip over information themselves

It was very moving to see the relief of Nadia Sawalha as she described being finally diagnosed with ADHD (Nadia Sawalha reveals she has been diagnosed with ADHD in late 50s, 24 November).

I write as co-chair of ADHD Aware, a national peer support charity for adults impacted by ADHD, based in Brighton and Hove. We see this situation over and over in adults who have had disappointing school experiences and bewildered families all navigating the world of this vastly undiagnosed condition. This is particularly the case for women.

Marcus Rashford kneeled down, closed his eyes and pointed his fingers to the sky. At one of the finest moments of his career, the England forward wanted to pay his respects to a friend he has just lost to cancer. The emotions raged.

Rashford had finally made the breakthrough, lancing the tension that had built during a tepid first half against an ultra-defensive Wales, and it was some way to do so a a fizzing free-kick that veered away from the goalkeeper, Danny Ward, and headed towards the top corner.

Forward was reduced to a pawn on a chessboard of kings and queens as his side crashed out of World Cup after England loss

aYouare going home in the morning,a came the chorus from the England supporters after Marcus Rashford fired in an early second-half freeakick and again, a little bit louder, when Phil Foden doubled their advantage 98 seconds later. It was salt into the wound for the bank of Wales fans at the other end a sixaand-a-bit blocks of the Red Wall a for whom a first World Cup finals in 64 years has turned out to be a rather dispiriting and demoralising experience. Was it really worth the wait? Gareth Bale will no doubt ponder the same question in the coming days.

Bale, who appeared to alert medical staff to a hamstring problem with about 10 minutes of the first half to play, was substituted at the break. Three weeks ago, on the day Rob Page announced his squad, the Wales manager conceded that whether Bale could handle three games in quick succession was the millionadollar question, for which we now have a resounding answer: 256 minutes across eight days was simply too much for a player who has played such little football over the past few years. The painful truth is Baleas three World Cup appearances comprise three duds. At the final whistle Bale limped on to the pitch, embraced Page and then Gareth Southgate.

• USMNT star sustained apelvic contusiona during winning goal
• Americans now face Netherlands for place in quarter-final

Christian Pulisic was taken to hospital with a pelvic injury sustained while scoring the winner in USAas tense 1-0 victory over Iran, raising concerns about his availability for Saturdayas last-16 tie against the Netherlands.

The forward underwent scans after being substituted at half-time on Tuesday night, having initially attempted to shrug off his collision with the Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand. He took the knock as he bravely converted SergiA+-o Destas header in the 38th minute but was clearly in discomfort.

The importance of the occasion was not lost on Kalidou Koulibaly and neither was the poignancy. Two years to the day since Papa Bouba Diop died aged 42, his successors in the Senegal shirt honoured the midfielderas memory in the finest way possible, advancing into the last 16 and a probable date with England at the expense of Ecuador.

Koulibaly prepared for the Group A decider by watching videos of Bouba Diop in his prime. The Senegal captain shaped it with his first international goal, sending the Africa Cup of Nations champions through and Ecuador out with a winner 150 seconds after MoisA(c)s Caicedoas equaliser threatened to turn the tables.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Troy Townsend, Elis James, Barney Ronay and Nick Ames as England seal their neighboursa fate

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

Today: England beat Wales 3-0 to secure their place at the top of Group B, setting up a Round of 16 game against Senegal. Itas the end of the road for Wales, and Elis James joins us to offer his perspective.

After the Netherlands coasted into the last 16 as Group A winners, Louis van Gaal was in classic defiant form, going toe-to-toe with those claiming that watching his team is akin to agrinding teetha.

The victory featured a Cody Gakpo strike which made him the tournamentas joint-top goalscorer with three, alongside Kylian MbappA(c) and Enner Valencia,plus one for Frenkie de Jong, who endured sleepless nights in the buildup. So while Qatar bow out of their World Cup with a single goal and zero points, the Netherlands can begin to dream a little.

• Frappart leads all-female team for Costa Rica v Germany
• Neuza Back and Karen DAaz Medina will be her assistants

The French referee StA(c)phanie Frappart will lead the first all-female officiating team for a menas World Cup match when she takes charge of Costa Rica v Germany.

Frappart, who will be the first woman to referee a menas World Cup match, will be joined by assistant referees Neuza Back of Brazil and Mexicoas Karen DAaz Medina for the crucial Group E game on Thursday, Fifa announced on Tuesday.

Move could help restore drying lake, a former resort destination that has deteriorated into an environmental crisis amid drought

The US government said on Monday it will spend up to $250m over four years to help mitigate an environmental health disaster that has been brewing in Californiaas Salton Sea for nearly two decades.

The inland lake, which is fed by agricultural runoff and wastewater, has slowly been shrinking, exposing a powdery shoreline laced with arsenic, selenium and DDT. Dust from the drying lake has wafted into surrounding communities, exacerbating pollution and consequently respiratory conditions in one of Californiaas poorest and most environmentally burdened regions.

Free allowances ain direct contradiction with the polluter pays principlea, WWF report says

Big polluting industries have been given almost a!100bn (APS86bn) in free carbon permits by the EU in the last nine years, according to an analysis by the WWF. The free allowances are ain direct contradiction with the polluter pays principlea, the group said.

Free pollution permits worth a!98.5bn were given to energy-intensive sectors including steel, cement, chemicals and aviation from 2013-21. This is more than the a!88.5bn that the EUas emissions trading scheme (ETS) charged polluters, mostly coal and gas power stations, for their CO₂ emissions.

First global analysis follows discovery of toxic pollution particles in lungs and brains of foetuses

Almost a million stillbirths a year can be attributed to air pollution, according to the first global study.

The research estimated that almost half of stillbirths could be linked to exposure to pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), mostly produced from the burning of fossil fuels.

Scientists have delivered clear advice for the reef. So what did their report say, how might the government respond and what happens next?

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The status of the Great Barrier Reef as a globally significant and intact world heritage site is under the spotlight again.

Two UN-backed scientists have today recommended, after a 10-day inspection earlier this year, the worldas biggest coral reef system should be placed on a list of world heritage sites ain dangera.

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Thousands of staff, including 999 call handlers and paramedics, to take strike action over pay and staffing levels

Ambulance workers across England intend to strike before Christmas after voting in favour of industrial action over pay and staffing levels.

Unison, the UKas biggest trade union, announced the results of its month-long NHS strike ballot and said thousands of 999 call handlers, ambulance technicians, paramedics and their colleagues working for ambulance services in the north-east, north-west, London, Yorkshire and the south-west are to take industrial action.

Avanti West Coast, which received APS343m subsidy, had worst punctuality performance among train operators

Labour has called on ministers to claw back APS12m in dividends paid by Avanti West Coast to its shareholders last year, when it was subsidised by APS343m by the taxpayer.

Figures released by the rail watchdog on Tuesday showed that Avanti paid out APS12m in 2021-22 from management and performance fees.

NHS Digital research reveals scale of issues, with even higher number of 20- to 23-year-olds affected

More than half of older teenagers and young adults in England have a problematic relationship with food, a major survey of young peopleas mental health has found.

Six in ten (60%) 17- to 19-year-olds have apossible problems with eatinga, according to research undertaken by NHS Digital, the health serviceas statistical body.

One in four 17- to 19-year-olds have a probable mental disorder a up from one in 10 in 2017 and one in six last year.

Children and young people from households facing financial difficulties, such as those who cannot afford food, are much more likely to have mental health problems.

One in eight 11- to 16-year-olds, and 29.4% of those that age with a mental health disorder such as anxiety or depression, have been bullied online.

One in six 17- to 24-year-olds have tried to harm themselves.

Half of free-range turkeys and geese grown for festive period have died or been culled due to bird flu, MPs told

Half of the free-range poultry grown for Christmas in the UK have died or been culled because of the bird flu epidemic, an industry leader has told MPs.

The British Poultry Council chief executive, Richard Griffiths, told the environment, food and rural affairs committee on Tuesday that free-range poultry had been hit avery, very harda.

Andrew Bailey tells Lords committee of aextraordinary processa with ano formal communicationa between Treasury and Bank

The governor of the Bank of England has indicated it was left blindsided by Kwasi Kwartengas disastrous mini-budget, describing an aextraordinary processa in which there was ano formal communicationa before the chancellor unveiled his measures.

In candid evidence to the Lords economic affairs committee, Andrew Bailey said Kwarteng had broken with tradition by failing to brief the central bank, suggesting that even Treasury officials were not fully aware of his plans a day before the event.

Harem Ahmed Abwbaker accused of being member of crime gang behind November 2021 attempted voyage in which dinghy sank

A man has been arrested in the UK in connection with the deaths of at least 27 people who drowned while trying to cross the Channel in a dinghy a year ago.

Harem Ahmed Abwbaker, 32, was detained at an address in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, at about 6.45am on Tuesday, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Letter from 44 charities urges independent investigation into aappallinga treatment of people at Kent processing centre

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is being urged by 44 leading charities to launch a Windrush-style inquiry into the crisis that engulfed Manston processing centre.

Organisations including the Refugee Council, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee have written a letter to the Guardian seeking an independent investigation into how people seeking refuge in the UK were forced to live in cramped and insanitary conditions.

Three companies complain over lack of transparency around deal which could be biggest government bailout since RBS and Lloyds

The takeover of collapsed bailed-out energy supplier Bulb by rival Octopus faces further delays after three rival companies launched judicial review proceedings, arguing that there are asignificant concernsa over a possible APS1bn government-funded adowrya.

Octopus agreed to buy Bulb out of a special government-handled administration last month after a year-long process which could cost the taxpayer up to APS6.5bn, according to a government estimate.

Figures show drop in partnerships with state schools a which Labour says Tories promised would trigger a review of fees

Labour has hit back at Conservative attacks on its pledge to put VAT on private school fees, with analysis showing a drop in partnerships with state schools.

The party has been accused of starting a aclass wara against private schools though Labour sources said the Conservativeas 2017 manifesto had also promised to review whether to charge VAT on school fees if partnerships with state schools did not increase.

aVery reala threats against Meghan led to prosecutions, says outgoing assistant commissioner Neil Basu

The Duchess of Sussex was subject to multiple adisgustinga threats against her life, a senior police officer has revealed, adding they were avery reala and led to prosecutions.

Neil Basu, the outgoing assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, told Channel 4 News the threats were deemed credible, adding that the material would have left her feeling aunder threat all of the timea.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition fears energy suppliers are using warrants to disconnect poorest aby the back doora

Campaigners have called for an immediate ban on pre-payment meter (PPM) installations made under court warrants because of fears that energy suppliers are using them to disconnect the poorest, most indebted customers aby the back doora.

Energy firmsa licence conditions protect many vulnerable people from formal disconnection over the winter, but the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said transferring households on to PPMs, which require regular top-ups and charge for energy at a higher rate, often prompted people in debt to aself-disconnecta.

The climate activists claim to have targeted 4x4 owners in eight European and US cities

Guerrilla climate activists Tyre Extinguishers have claimed their alargest ever night of action against SUVsa, with 900 of the vehicles targeted around the world.

aLast night (the evening of Monday 28 November and early morning of Tuesday 29 November), citizens in eight countries deflated tyres on nearly 900 polluting SUVs,a the activist group said in a statement.

Andriy Pavelko and general secretary accused of embezzling funds related to construction of artificial grass factory

Two leading officials in Ukraineas football association, including its head, have been arrested over fraud and money-laundering allegations related to the construction of an artificial grass factory.

Andriy Pavelko, the president of the Ukraine FA, and Yuri Zapisotsky, the associationas general secretary, are accused of aembezzlinga 26.5m Ukrainian Hryvnia (APS600,000).

Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy break silence over meeting and say no room in party for antisemitism or white supremacy

The top two Republicans in Congress have broken their silence about Donald Trumpas dinner last week with the rightwing extremist Nick Fuentes, saying the Republican party has no place for antisemitism or white supremacy.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and Kevin McCarthy, who may become House speaker in January, had not commented previously on the 22 November meeting.

Mammals can produce sound from ventricular folds, used by humans only for Tuvan throat singing and adeath metal gruntinga

It has long been known Ozzy Osbourne has a taste for bats. But now it seems the mammals are also fans of his.

Bats greet each other with death metal growls, scientists have discovered, and possess a vocal range which far surpasses that of most humans.

First Test series hosted by Pakistan against England for 17 years has generated goodwill over touristsa bold approach

Ben Stokes is an England captain keen to do things differently. It includes showing his hand early and in the case of the historic series opener against Pakistan, starting on Thursday in bustling Rawalpindi, this means a debut for Liam Livingstone and what may well feel similar for Ben Duckett after a six-year absence.

But then everything feels very new for England right now as they shuttle between hotel and ground in a convoy of armoured vehicles. The 17-year absence from Pakistan means even Jimmy Anderson is light on knowledge. The 40ayearaold father of the house admitted he was aracking his brainsa for any memories of being 12th man in 2005 that could help England to win only a third series in these parts.

• Woods: LIV Golf and PGA Tour acannot co-exist at the momenta
• American reveals he has had two more operations this year

Tiger Woods has taken aim at Greg Norman by insisting the LIV Golf chief executive has to step down in order to end aanimositya between the rebel circuit and the PGA Tour.

Woods has called for both sides in golfas power struggle to drop legal action a LIV is suing the PGA Tour and vice-versa a but he believes that will be feasible only if Norman exits the scene. Woods seemed to suggest that the Australian was seeking to adestroya the PGA Tour.

Citing acatastrophica risk to US economy, Nancy Pelosi announces impending vote to bind unions to September negotiations

The US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has announced that her fellow members of Congress plan to vote this week on imposing a new contract for railroad workers to avert a looming labor strike.

Pelosi made the announcement late on Monday afternoon just after Joe Biden called on Congress to intervene to prevent a strike, a possibility if an agreement between the freight rail industry and unions is not made by 9 December.

European firms urged to donate spare parts after sustained Russian strikes on power plants and substations

• Russia-Ukraine war a latest news updates

Ukraineas supplies of spare parts for its battered electricity grid are running out amid sustained Russian bombing, and European companies are being asked to urgently donate surplus kit to help the country get through the winter.

There were power cuts lasting 48 hours or more across the country last week after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks, the latest step in a wave of bombings targeting power plants and substations which route energy around the network.

Unannounced change in rules was made last week as health experts stress importance of combating disinformation

Twitter will no longer enforce its policy against Covid-19 misinformation, raising concerns among public health experts that the change could have serious consequences if it discourages vaccination and other efforts to combat the still-spreading virus.

Eagle-eyed users spotted the change on Monday night, noting that a one-sentence update had been made to Twitteras online rules: aEffective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.a

Streets flooded with police as top security body blames ainfiltration and sabotagea for unrest

• Chinaas zero-Covid policy explained in 30 seconds

China has sent university students home and flooded streets with police in an attempt to disperse the most widespread anti-government protests in decades, as the countryas top security body called for a crackdown on ahostile forcesa.

In an apparent effort to tackle anger at the zero-Covid policies that originally sparked the protests, authorities also announced plans to step up vaccination of older people.

Film and TV actor also appeared in Walker, Texas Ranger before joining University of Nevada theatre department

The film and television actor Clarence Gilyard a who was known for supporting roles in the movies Top Gun and Die Hard and for starring in the TV show Walker, Texas Ranger a has died, according to the university where he taught. He was 66.

Gilyard reportedly had long been ill, but no other details were immediately available when the college of fine arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) announced his death in a news release on Monday afternoon.

Exclusive: a study shows the company has a long way to go in upholding its pledge to protect users

In the wake of the US supreme courtas overturning of Roe v Wade, Google pledged fresh policies to protect peopleas abortion-related data. But new research has shown the way our location and other personal data is stored remains largely unchanged, raising fears that intimate details of a personas abortion search could be used to penalize them.

Google responds to tens of thousands of requests each year from law enforcement agencies seeking access to the vast troves of data collected on its users. In one six-month period in 2021, the most recent data publicly available, Google received nearly 47,000 law enforcement requests, affecting more than 100,000 accounts, and responded with some amount of data to 80% of them. The Dobbs decision sparked concerns that such data could be used to prosecute people seeking abortions in states where it is banned a for instance, if they searched for or traveled to an abortion clinic.

Move could help restore drying lake, a former resort destination that has deteriorated into an environmental crisis amid drought

The US government said on Monday it will spend up to $250m over four years to help mitigate an environmental health disaster that has been brewing in Californiaas Salton Sea for nearly two decades.

The inland lake, which is fed by agricultural runoff and wastewater, has slowly been shrinking, exposing a powdery shoreline laced with arsenic, selenium and DDT. Dust from the drying lake has wafted into surrounding communities, exacerbating pollution and consequently respiratory conditions in one of Californiaas poorest and most environmentally burdened regions.

Andriy Pavelko and general secretary accused of embezzling funds related to construction of artificial grass factory

Two leading officials in Ukraineas football association, including its head, have been arrested over fraud and money-laundering allegations related to the construction of an artificial grass factory.

Andriy Pavelko, the president of the Ukraine FA, and Yuri Zapisotsky, the associationas general secretary, are accused of aembezzlinga 26.5m Ukrainian Hryvnia (APS600,000).

After Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, this is expected to be the hardest winter in Ukraine since the second world war

The defining image of the current state of the war in Ukraine a and at the same time a metaphor for the entire country a is the snow-covered rubble of a residential building split in two by a Russian bomb in the town of Borodianka.

Some people who lived in that building have died as a result of the conflict. Others have managed to escape, joining the great exodus of refugees toward Europe. Some are now living in a dormitory on the outskirts of the town, struggling, like millions of other Ukrainians, with the nightmare of what is expected to be the hardest winter in the countryas history since the second world war.

Top left: residents of Borodianka disembark from a bus in a street heavily bombed by Russia. Top right: the rubble of a house in Borodianka. Above: an elderly woman walks by the snow-covered rubble of a residential building in Borodianka

Marcus Rashford kneeled down, closed his eyes and pointed his fingers to the sky. At one of the finest moments of his career, the England forward wanted to pay his respects to a friend he has just lost to cancer. The emotions raged.

Rashford had finally made the breakthrough, lancing the tension that had built during a tepid first half against an ultra-defensive Wales, and it was some way to do so a a fizzing free-kick that veered away from the goalkeeper, Danny Ward, and headed towards the top corner.

The two veteran superstars have competed for individual awards before and will both carry their nationsa hopes

Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the sharpest of them all? On Wednesday night all eyes at Stadium 974 will be drawn, inexorably, to footballas version of a beauty contest: can Lionel Messias rich attacking gifts guide Argentina into the knockout phase or might Robert Lewandowskias uncanny efficiency in front of goal enable Poland to eclipse the Group C favourites?

aWe rely on these great strikers but an individual cannot win alone,a Czeslaw Michniewicz, Polandas head coach, said on Tuesday. aBut itas not only a battle between Lewandowski and Messi a itas not tennis, itas not one-on-one, they are not serving! Robert needs his teammates, the same as Leo.a

• USMNT star sustained apelvic contusiona during winning goal
• Americans now face Netherlands for place in quarter-final

Christian Pulisic was taken to hospital with a pelvic injury sustained while scoring the winner in USAas tense 1-0 victory over Iran, raising concerns about his availability for Saturdayas last-16 tie against the Netherlands.

The forward underwent scans after being substituted at half-time on Tuesday night, having initially attempted to shrug off his collision with the Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand. He took the knock as he bravely converted SergiA+-o Destas header in the 38th minute but was clearly in discomfort.

After the Netherlands coasted into the last 16 as Group A winners, Louis van Gaal was in classic defiant form, going toe-to-toe with those claiming that watching his team is akin to agrinding teetha.

The victory featured a Cody Gakpo strike which made him the tournamentas joint-top goalscorer with three, alongside Kylian MbappA(c) and Enner Valencia,plus one for Frenkie de Jong, who endured sleepless nights in the buildup. So while Qatar bow out of their World Cup with a single goal and zero points, the Netherlands can begin to dream a little.

Robert Downey Sr put his son in wild underground movies and gave him access to drugs. So what happened when Downey Jr finally turned the cameras on his dad?

In his fatheras underground western Greaseras Palace, a seven-year-old Robert Downey Jr plays, in his own words, aa boy who got his neck slit by Goda. This, perhaps, explains a lot. Downey Jr grew up on Robert Downey Sras film sets in the 70s and 80s, amid what he calls aa cacophony of creativitya, at the heart of the counterculture cinema scene fuelled by acigarettes and weed and boozea. He slept in a cot wedged against an editing desk, got taken to see X-rated films such as La Grande Bouffe at an absurdly young age, and went on a cross-country road trip as a kid where he awas in charge of the hash pipea.

In the twilight of his fatheras years, Downey Jr wanted some answers about why his father didnat take better care of him. The resulting documentary a called Sr, with remorseless family logic a acts as part tribute, part therapy session and part last hurrah. aYou,a Downey Jr tells his father, adid not give a mad fuck, did you?a

Lava, volcanic gas and smog are the main hazards from eruption of the worldas largest active volcano

Hawaiias Mauna Loa, the worldas largest active volcano, is erupting for the first time in nearly 40 years a causing spectacular scenes, casting an eerie red glow over the island and shooting lava up to 200ft (60 metres) in the air.

Mauna Loa last erupted in 1984. Its smaller, more active neighbor, Kilauea volcano, has been erupting continuously for more than a year since September 2021.

They may have to sign thousands of books individually, but it seems writers wouldnat dream of using a robot pen

A signature in a book may seem like a few seconds of work, but a as evidenced by Bob Dylanas recent use of an autopen a itas a big endeavour when hundreds of books need to be signed.

Dylan has issued an apology after admitting using a machine to autograph 900 limited ahand-signeda editions of his book The Philosophy of Modern Song, which sold for $599 (APS498) each. But heas not the first person to make use of the technology. Autopens have been openly used by politicians for a number of years, with Barack Obama becoming the first US president to pass legislation with an autopen signature. Theyave not been without controversy, however; in 2004 then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was criticised for using a mechanical signature to sign letters of condolence to relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mammals can produce sound from ventricular folds, used by humans only for Tuvan throat singing and adeath metal gruntinga

It has long been known Ozzy Osbourne has a taste for bats. But now it seems the mammals are also fans of his.

Bats greet each other with death metal growls, scientists have discovered, and possess a vocal range which far surpasses that of most humans.

Julia Fox, Winnie Harlow and the USA footballer SergiA+-o Dest are among the big names choosing a look associated with ageing. Whatas behind the trend?

When 2022as trend generator Julia Fox attended the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards earlier this month, for once it wasnat the barely-there dress that hit the headlines. Instead, it was her hair, which was dyed an unmistakable shade of oyster grey.

Fox commented on the look at the event. aThis is a love letter to getting older,a she said. The actor and model is 32.

The protestersa cry of awoman, life, freedoma is inspiring, but many people in the US quit listening after the first word

Itas been more than two months since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested by Iranas so-called guidance patrol for incorrectly wearing her hijab, died in police custody. The official report blamed her death on heart failure, but eyewitnesses and her family insist that she was so severely beaten that she suffered a fatal brain injury. Since then, protests have raged across Iran despite the brutality of the governmentas response. Over 400 people have been killed; an unknown number of journalists and demonstrators have been imprisoned or disappeared. Hundreds have been blinded by rubber bullets and metal pellets fired into crowds of protesters. Popular athletes a soccer star Voria Ghafouri and champion climber Elnaz Rekabi a have been detained for criticizing, or appearing to criticize, the government.

Iranas Revolutionary Guards have begun targeting children. At least 58 young Iranians have been murdered, five of them within one recent week. The government seems to believe that terror for oneas children is the most effective way to keep dissidents at home and off the streets.

After its festive ad campaign tried to spread some holiday cheer, the fashion house Balenciaga has been judged the sinner

Very early days of course, but at this stage youad probably judge that John Lewisas Christmas ad campaign was going better than Balenciagaas. This is a fast-developing festive cancellation shitstorm, so forgive me if I have missed any major staging posts across the past few days. But as of this morning, the luxury fashion house has: issued a mushrooming series of apologies for an ad series featuring children holding handbags crafted from teddy bears dressed in bondage outfits; deleted its entire Instagram history; had a confected industry award withheld from its resident creative genius; been exposed for an earlier ad campaign that featured casually placed a| hang on, let me get my hazmat gloves a| US supreme court documents relating to a case involving child abuse images; served a blame-shifting $25m lawsuit against the producer of that ad; held crisis talks with Kim Kardashian who has herself issued some archbishop of Canterbury-style statement about her shock and disgust about the BDSM cuddly toy ads; and become the lightning rod for a raging attack on liberal values, from anyone unfashionably accessorised with common sense to standard alt-right suspects, to the full QAnon wingnuts.

Honestly, you try to spread a little holiday cheer by getting some sad-looking children to hold up your bondage teddy bear handbags, and this is the thanks you get. Short of shooting the ad campaign in the basement of the pizzeria in which Hillary Clinton was conspiracy-theorised as masterminding a paedophile ring, itas hard to see where Balenciaga could have been more extra, creatively speaking. I bet they wish theyad just done a big picture of Santa, sticking some of their gopping sock trainers under the tree of a bolshie Surrey injectables trainee, but the insistence that the market is something more edgily high-art than the reality is the fashion industryas central creed.

Why do big brands think they have to be edgy? And yes, I am also talking about you Balenciaga

You know what I would like a major manufacturer of tampons to do? Make tampons. You know what I wouldnat like them to do? Make creepy sex jokes on Twitter. This is a not-so-subtle reference to Tampax, which caused large swathes of the internet to see red after an off-colour tweet last week. aYouare in their DMs,a Tampax tweeted. aWeare in them. We are not the same.a

I spend a good 60% of my waking hours on Twitter. Maybe you donat. If we are not the same then you might have no idea what on earth Tampax was on about. (Good for you!) Essentially, its joke was a mashup of two popular memes. The plain English translation reads: aYouare flirting with them via direct message, Iam in their vagina. Ha ha, Iam better than you.a

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

When I drive him to his first day of high school, Iall insist he talk to me to keep him off his new phone just a bit longer. Iall relish that sliver of time

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If your child doesnat know mine, you wonat have heard that I am the worldas worst parent ever a frequently clueless, mostly bossy, and totally unfair.

Wait, you say, thatas me! And while I wonat ask what crimes you committed to deserve the title, mine is a series of annoying expectations (homework before screen, clothes off the floor, feed the dog) capped by the monumental sin of declining to buy my child a phone until he finished primary school.

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Sure, their conversations are inane, theyare loud and their phones are even louder a but this is about claiming territory. At least thereas no scent-marking involved

If youare the kind of person who gets annoyed by teenagers on buses, you just shouldnat get a bus at 3.15pm, especially if you live next door to a secondary school. And I know all that, but there I was, on a bus at exactly the wrong time, getting annoyed.

The sharper-eyed reader will know I have teenagers of my own, so I should lean towards infinite love and forgiveness for the whole generation. I also remember what itas like to be the annoying teenager, against all the odds because I canat remember much else from the 80s. My sister and I got a coach once from London to Leighton Buzzard a we were about 13 and 15 a and as we were getting off, this guy exploded: aThank God! I couldnat have taken one more minute a theyare like a pair of chipmunks.a We didnat even realise he was talking about us until our mum said: aTry living with them.a We were just thinking, ooh, where are there chipmunks?

This proved a game too far for Iran. As their players took in the significance of the final whistle, many of them falling to the floor, it was impossible not to wonder what was running through their minds. Rarely has a team contested a World Cup facing such an extraordinary set of external pressures and the devastation at falling agonisingly short of a debut in the knockout stage was etched on every face. When the dust has settled they should take huge pride in remaining so competitive but the physical and emotional exertions of recent weeks will have taken a considerable toll.

The mood would have been vastly different had they converted one of several good second-half chances, the last of them falling to Mehdi Taremi deep into added time. He could not squeeze the ball far enough beyond Matt Turner, claiming to have been pulled back by Cameron Carter-Vickers and taking animated issue with the match officials after proceedings had concluded. In reality he was clutching at straws: any contact had been inconsequential and the truth was that, over the piece, Iran were beaten by the better side.

Forward was reduced to a pawn on a chessboard of kings and queens as his side crashed out of World Cup after England loss

aYouare going home in the morning,a came the chorus from the England supporters after Marcus Rashford fired in an early second-half freeakick and again, a little bit louder, when Phil Foden doubled their advantage 98 seconds later. It was salt into the wound for the bank of Wales fans at the other end a sixaand-a-bit blocks of the Red Wall a for whom a first World Cup finals in 64 years has turned out to be a rather dispiriting and demoralising experience. Was it really worth the wait? Gareth Bale will no doubt ponder the same question in the coming days.

Bale, who appeared to alert medical staff to a hamstring problem with about 10 minutes of the first half to play, was substituted at the break. Three weeks ago, on the day Rob Page announced his squad, the Wales manager conceded that whether Bale could handle three games in quick succession was the millionadollar question, for which we now have a resounding answer: 256 minutes across eight days was simply too much for a player who has played such little football over the past few years. The painful truth is Baleas three World Cup appearances comprise three duds. At the final whistle Bale limped on to the pitch, embraced Page and then Gareth Southgate.

• Women want to show that aWeare still here. We still mattera
• Quarterback has served long suspension over allegations
• Player denies he assaulted or harassed women

With nearly all of the more than two dozen lawsuits filed against Deshaun Watson settled, most of the women who accused the Cleveland quarterback of sexual misconduct have no interest in his return to Houston on Sunday and just want to move on with their lives, according to their attorney.

Attorney Tony Buzbee said about 10 of the women who accused Watson of sexual harassment and assault during massages are planning to attend Sundayas game at Houstonas NRG Stadium, where the Browns will take on the Texans, and watch him play in his return from an 11-game suspension.

Australian champion Matt Formston says his vision impairment gives him an advantage as he continues to push boundaries in the water

This week, some of the worldas best big wave surfers are in NazarA(c), Portugal, home to the biggest wave on the planet. An early season winter swell is pulsing into the underwater canyon off the Portuguese coast, with giant eight to nine-metre (20 to 30ft) waves rising out of the ocean. They might not be the world-record breaking 26-metre (86ft) monster wave ridden there two years ago, but theyare not small either.

Among the surfers is 44-year-old Matt Formston. Like his counterparts, the Sydney-born surfer has been in the water for decades, winning national and international titles and riding some of the best waves in the world. But unlike his counterparts, Formston is blind; at NazarA(c), he is becoming the first blind surfer to ride such big waves.

The importance of the occasion was not lost on Kalidou Koulibaly and neither was the poignancy. Two years to the day since Papa Bouba Diop died aged 42, his successors in the Senegal shirt honoured the midfielderas memory in the finest way possible, advancing into the last 16 and a probable date with England at the expense of Ecuador.

Koulibaly prepared for the Group A decider by watching videos of Bouba Diop in his prime. The Senegal captain shaped it with his first international goal, sending the Africa Cup of Nations champions through and Ecuador out with a winner 150 seconds after MoisA(c)s Caicedoas equaliser threatened to turn the tables.

• Woods: LIV Golf and PGA Tour acannot co-exist at the momenta
• American reveals he has had two more operations this year

Tiger Woods has taken aim at Greg Norman by insisting the LIV Golf chief executive has to step down in order to end aanimositya between the rebel circuit and the PGA Tour.

Woods has called for both sides in golfas power struggle to drop legal action a LIV is suing the PGA Tour and vice-versa a but he believes that will be feasible only if Norman exits the scene. Woods seemed to suggest that the Australian was seeking to adestroya the PGA Tour.

The cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed earlier this month, leaving billions of dollars unaccounted for. Alex Hern explores what happened and where the money went

For a time, it seemed that everything Sam Bankman-Fried touched turned to gold. Head been a maths whiz at university and made a fortune trading cryptocurrencies for a hedge fund before striking out on his own and founding a crypto exchange: FTX. The crypto boom made him a billionaire and he moved into a $40m apartment in the Bahamas with eight others in the groupas inner circle who were romantically linked. There were reports that stimulants were doled out to staff who worked intensely long days, often sleeping on beanbags at their desks.

Earlier this month, the music stopped. As investors in FTX began to take fright at rumours of a black hole in its balance sheet, the panic spread and Bankman-Fried failed to calm it. FTX collapsed, taking billions of dollars with it, and Bankman-Fried stood aside. Having become an ambassador for the crypto industry and one of its most trusted faces, he had become a pariah.

The first Broadway show celebrating Korean culture hopes to show thereas amore to K-pop than just Gangnam Stylea

With her ice blond hair, kaleidoscopic costumes and melismatic high notes, the South Korean solo artist MwE (pronounced mu-WEE) looks the part of a bona fide K-pop idol, the model of a hyper-visible cipher. Fellow girl group RTMIS (pronounced Artemis) boasts similarly convincing stage confidence, while boy band F8 (pronounced Fate) approaches the delivery of English and Korean lyrics and kinetic choreography with enough militaristic precision to draw whoops from a crowd of about 600 at New Yorkas Circle in the Square theater on a recent Wednesday.

The trio are, on one level, the stable of acts meant to introduce a Korean pop label to American audiences in a one-night only concert debut. They are also, in one of many meta moments, the fictional backbone of KPOP, a new musical introducing the chart-dominating genre to Broadway. The eardrum-shaking show, which opened last week after a long pandemic delay, straddles the line between Technicolor bilingual concert and musical theater, blurring Broadway conventions with arena pop adrenaline; four of the 18 cast members, including Luna as MwE, double as real-life K-pop idols.

Posthumous lawsuit brought by Jan Roeg, who worked as a talent scout, alleges a long history of harassment and assault

Jan Roeg, a talent scout who worked for Atlantic Records under label founder Ahmet Ertegun from 1984 until the mid 00s, has sued the label and the estate of Ertegun for sexual assault, alleging that Atlantic knew about Ertegunas misconduct and took a alaissez fairea approach when dealing with it. Rolling Stone reports that Roeg alleges Ertegun sexually harrassed and assaulted her throughout her time at the label, masturbating in front of her numerous times, forcing her head to his crotch in attempts to engage in oral sex, digitally penetrating her and, during a dinner in 1990, drugging her, resulting in her getting her stomach pumped.

Roeg also alleges that Ertegun touched her and made inappropriate comments about her, would describe her as his girlfriend, and retaliated against her rejections by withholding money she was owed. Elsewhere in the lawsuit, Roeg says that Atlantic, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, autterly failed to engage in training or implementation of any policies or standards that would inform employees of the companyas disapproval of and how to report such conducta. The lawsuit also states that Atlantic failed to institute any policy athat would dissuade employees from engaging in sexual misconducta while on company premises or time.

The character comedian and TV star on meeting angry fans, his first UK tour as megalomaniac magician Mr Swallow and taking inspiration from Torvill and Dean

Who did you look up to when you were starting out?
French and Saunders were probably the most inspirational. I used to watch a lot of older stuff too like Some Mothers Do aAve aEm and Fawlty Towers. But it wasnat just comedy. I found Torvill and Dean hugely inspiring purely in terms of sheer dedication to their craft. I feel similarly about Derren Brown a people who just completely own their areas.

Why did you decide to go into comedy?
Iam not sure it was ever a decision, in that there was never any guarantee it would all work out a and in many ways thatas still true today. I used to perform magic a lot when I was younger and so I knew I liked entertaining people and it was something I wanted to do for a living. But it wasnat until I started doing a PhD in seismology that I started thinking seriously about doing comedy for a living. I wouldnat advise anyone else to take this route though, itas a little longwinded.

In 1982, no-one had ever seen a British Asian teenager in a sari singing Indian music on Top of the Pops a until Chandra appeared, with a raga-influenced single that would inspire musicians for decades

A decade after Bowieas Starman moment on Top of the Pops, a south Asian teenage girl extended a hand from BBC Television Centre to her own audience of dreamers. It was 1982 and a sari-clad Sheila Chandra was fronting Monsoon, whose debut single Ever So Lonely, an otherworldly confection of tablas and sitars topped by Chandraas ethereal voice, had hit No 12 in the UK singles chart. Mesmerised second-generation Asians, battling the dynamics of our parentsa cultural values while trying to fit in amid a climate of racial hostility, almost fell off our sofas.

aSo many people, especially from the Asian community, have contacted me over the years to tell me how significant it was for them,a says Chandra. aIt was revelatory for younger Asians to see one of their own on TV.a

Jason Segel mines his own misfortunes in this Hawaii-set breakup comedy that gives Brand the chance to flex his full verbose lizard king shtick

• Forgetting Sarah Marshall is streaming on Foxtel and Binge. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
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After the comedy impresario Judd Apatow tried and failed to launch Jason Segelas career through two ill-fated but much-beloved television shows a Freaks and Geeks, and Undeclared a he gave the downhearted actor some not unkind advice: aYouare kind of a weird dude. The only way youare going to make it is if you start writing your own material.a

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was the end result of this advice, a 2008 breakup comedy set in Hawaii in which Segel mines his own past misfortunes for laughs and pathos. He plays Peter, a lovable but hapless TV composer who is cruelly dumped by his live-in partner, the titular Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), who also happens to be a Hollywood star a and is therefore quite unavoidable.

An orphan held hostage in the forest and a woman waking up confused in a luxury Mexican retreat are among this monthas highlights

Henry Thorne is a clever, sensitive 10-year-old who has already been through more than most children his age after the death of his parents. Heas living with his uncle and aunt, trying to find a new way of being, when he is kidnapped by a gang of very nasty men for the millions in insurance money paid out on his fatheras death. They take him to an isolated house deep in the woods while they await the meeting of their demands. But Henry, who has always been more attuned to the world than most, knows that his kidnappers arenat the only danger lurking in the forest.

LA-based writer Philip Fracassias A Child Alone With Strangers (Talos, APS20) has all the elements of a police procedural, as the FBI desperately hunt for Henry while the boy does his best to stay alive. But itas also a perfectly pitched horror novel, visceral and terrifying, delving deep into an eldritch world that sits alongside our own. It reminds me of early Stephen King a It; Firestarter; The Shining a but Fracassi also brings a depth of understanding to his monsters, human and otherwise, that makes A Child Alone With Strangers deeply moving. I only picked this up because of a recommendation from the excellent horror podcast Talking Scared. I am now forcing it on everyone I know. Highly recommended.

The psychotic male with a poetic side is an old saw, but director Marc Fouchard brings some original and freshly disturbing touches to it

This artfully made, borderline-despicable French drama revolves around Leo (KA(c)vin Mischel), a brooding, lonely taxi driver with cheekbones sharp as dressmakeras shears, a secret talent for musical composition, romantic longings for pretty dancer AmA(c)lie (AurA(c)lia Poirier) and the uncontrollable urge to kill women. Whether he actually does that or not isnat clear at first, since scenes where he murders one woman turn out to be fantasies a| or are they?

In a way, this film seems to not care either way because itas essentially much more interested in Leo and his mental anguish: anguish that is seeded by a former chanteuse mother (Dominique Frot) who beat him when he was little. The whole handsome-tragic-murderer shtick is one weave seen before in an assortment of films, from Peeping Tom and Taxi Driver to Kim Ki-dukas Bad Guy a but at least writer-director Marc Fouchard brings a few offbeat touches that add some fresh texture. For a start, AmA(c)lie, Leoas object of obsession, happens to be deaf which means she canat hear the music Leo has written and plays in the car, which one customer complains about rudely. But deafness doesnat stop AmA(c)lie from being an expressive, mesmeric dancer, and the bits where she performs are some of the best passages of the film.

Beloved by the likes of Dry Cleaning and Grouper, Montgomeryas life has been hit by more than one tragedy, stories he traces in meditative instrumentals

While travelling through the US in 1994-5, Roy Montgomery recorded two albums, Scenes from the South Island and Temple IV, which would set the tone for three decades of maverick work by the quietly avuncular New Zealand guitarist. aMy partner Jo had died in 1992, and I felt I owed it to her to travel and deal with what had happened,a he says, via Zoom from his home in Christchurch. aI sub-let an apartment in New York from a friend with a four-track recorder and lots of effects. It was lonely, like solitary confinement, but it was good that I just sat there and processed what had happened, and turned it into something.a

The mesmeric guitar instrumentals he recorded in that apartment marked a turning point in Montgomeryas fitful musical career. Thirteen years earlier, his band Pin Group had released the first single on now-legendary independent label Flying Nun, later home to key Kiwi underground artists the Clean, the Chills and the Verlaines. Pin Groupas post-punk primitivism a which earned him the nickname aRoy Divisiona a was shaped by Montgomeryas realisation that he awasnat wired to be a virtuoso, so I should concentrate on ideas and experimentationa.

Luke McManusas visually striking documentary explores a threatened working-class community and a strong music culture

Luke McManusas resonant, vivid and beautifully shot film is a documentary essay on Dublinas North Circular Road and its working-class communities and histories. The road runs from Phoenix Park in the west to Summerhill and the docklands in the east, with some neighbourhoods still deprived, others gentrified, and residents fighting back against being priced out. McManus interleaves plangent and melancholy folk music with individual interviews and reflections on the institutions and landmarks, including the brutal Mountjoy prison and the building that once housed the grim St Brendanas psychiatric hospital in Grangegorman. There is also OaDevaney Gardens, a notoriously tough area whose flats are being removed for a gentrified redevelopment (effacing, one ex-resident fears, any concept of community) and the Cobblestone pub, a famous trad folk music mecca saved from being converted into a hotel by community action.

This is a movie pregnant with images and ideas, something to be compared with Gianfranco Rosias 2013 film Sacro GRA, about the people who live and work on Romeas main ring road, the Grande Raccordo Anulare, and Alice Diopas film We (Nous), about the people and communities to be found along Parisas RER rail line. What distinguishes North Circular is the overwhelming importance of music: thereas a musical tradition here that is not simply commemorative and static, but vital and evolving, and given a fresh burst of creativity by the emerging status of women in Ireland a the film features a potent contribution from north Dublin singer-songwriter Gemma Dunleavy. A film made with real artistry.

As his industry comedy Hollywood Shuffle turns 35 and is inducted into the Criterion collection, the multi-hyphenate talks the struggle to make a low-budget indie

Robert Townsend moved to Los Angeles in the early 80s, determined to become a Hollywood star. And though he had quickly emerged as a draw on the standup circuit, the Chicago native struggled to reckon with the structural racism he encountered while auditioning for bit parts on film and TV a the vast majority of them ham-fisted stereotypes, from snitch to slave.

Before long, Townsendas casting call stories a some of them humiliating, most of them hilariously tone deaf a became too overwhelming for his regular postmortems with Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was going through the exact same thing.

Representation in retail became an urgent concern, but two years later Black businesses still face many of the same challenges

Supporting Black creators has consumed Aurora James for her entire working life. The Toronto-born fashion designer started her sustainable line Brother Vellies in 2013 as a means to employ artisans across Africa and preserve traditional shoe-making techniques. Founded with a mere $3,500, her company grew into a high-fashion favorite, with fans in BeyoncA(c), Meghan Markle and Serena Williams. But that was never the point.

The mission of representation hit closer to home in the summer of 2020, when a wave of unrest swept the US and masses took to the streets to protest racial inequality in the wake of the unjust killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others. Banks, media conglomerates and big box retailers scrambled to signal their support, but James still believed they could all do more. So she took to Instagram and challenged retailers to make a commitment to devote 15% of their spending to Black-owned businesses. After all, Black people represent 15% of the American population, aand we need to represent 15% of your shelf spacea, she explained on social media.

Jon Ferry sells old bones used in the teaching of medicine. But the medical bone trade has a murky history of exploitation

In a small, light-filled Bushwick studio space, a brown box rests on a wooden coffee table. Inside is a human head. aWanna start?a asks Jon Pichaya Ferry, pulling a box cutter out of the pocket of his black skinny jeans.

Inside is a lumpy form wrapped in thin aqua foam, which he tears off to reveal a skullas mandible. Out comes the rest of the skull; he fits the two parts together and places it on the lid of a coffin in the corner of the room, next to a can of Red Bull.

Wolves and lynx are returning to the mountains around this sustainable ski resort, where solar-powered lifts serve the grand prix runs and snow parks

Thereas a sense of healing among the pines and tangled roots. Skulking somewhere in the snowy woodlands is an Alpine ibex, a distinctly Viking-horned goat, once hunted to extinction in Switzerland before being reintroduced a century ago. Hidden in the forest, an endangered black grouse is whistling as it forages for dwarf shrub needles. Fresh fox-print trails wind through stone pine and spruce, though the grey wolf and bat-eared lynx that have begun to return to these mountains are more elusive.

Iam in Laax in GraubA1/4nden (70 miles south-east of Zurich), the Swiss Alpsa traditional home of winter sports, but itas a ski holiday that most people wouldnat recognise. The down-to-earth resort pitches itself as Switzerlandas most sustainable playground and Iam exploring from on-high on the new Senda dil Dragun (Way of the Dragon) treetop walkway. The raised, mile-long pathway towers 28 metres above the pillowy snow drifts and I keep my eyes peeled, scouting for ghostly predators and their prey. Though there might not be dragons, the woods are home to an arkas worth of Alpine species, from chamois and mountain hare to marmots and ptarmigan. In the stillness I spy a red deer through a knot of snow-laden pines. The quiet drama is just as nerve-tingling as any black run.

Iave never had this problem before a but the moment we enter the bedroom, I lose my erection

I am a 52-year-old man and my partner is 39. We have been dating for four months. Our sex life is miserable because I canat satisfy her in bed. She has threatened to leave me because of this. I always enjoyed sex with my ex-partners and they were happy with my sexual performance, but this has got me thinking something is wrong with me. I love my present partner so much but the moment I enter the bedroom with her, anxiety and doubt set in and I lose my erection. As soon as she leaves, I feel relieved and my erection returns.

Anxiety and erectile difficulties go hand in hand. When a person fears he will not be able to have an erection, that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I wonder why you are staying with someone who is unsupportive, even punitive. Donat you deserve a partner who is patient and cherishes you? Instead of allowing her to make you feel inadequate, try asking for what you need. Let her know that you need kindness and appreciation a| and that your penis would respond better too. Your penis is attached to your heart and sensibility, so her threats are far from useful. On the other hand, there are all kinds of reasons that someone who has had reliable erections no longer does a certain medical conditions, medication or stress, for example. Have a checkup, just in case.

Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.

If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please donat send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions.

Comments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site.

The ex-presidentas supporters will no longer be able to avoid testifying before grand juries in Washington DC and Georgia

A spate of major court rulings rejecting claims of executive privilege and other arguments by Donald Trump and his top allies are boosting investigations by the US justice department (DoJ) and a special Georgia grand jury into whether the former US president broke laws as he sought to overturn the 2020 election results.

Former prosecutors say the upshot of these court rulings is that key Trump backers and ex-administration lawyers a such as ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows and legal adviser John Eastman a can no longer stave off testifying before grand juries in DC and Georgia. They are wanted for questioning about their knowledge of a or active roles in a Trumpas crusade to stop Joe Biden from taking office by leveling false charges of fraud.

The beloved Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ club has a storied past, a painful present and a hopeful future

For two decades, Club Q was the center of gravity for the regionas LGBTQ+ community and provided a place to organize, share resources and, most of all, take refuge.

aIt is the mecca of this area. Everyone felt safe there. Everyone could go there and be themselves and not have something like this happen,a said Jessica Laney, an organizer with Pikes Peak Pride, referring to the 20 November shooting that killed five people and injured dozens more. aClub Q had their finger on the pulse of everything going on in the queer community in Colorado Springs and Denver and beyond.a

Federal government has continued to focus adisproportionatelya on international terrorist threats despite spate of racist shootings

The FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are failing to properly address the threat of domestic terrorism, predominantly from white supremacist and anti-government extremists, according to a Senate committee report released on Monday.

The Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee spent three years investigating domestic terrorism and the federal response.

Democrat set to succeed Nancy Pelosi maintains ties to Aipac and others but could be challenged by critics in his own caucus

Hakeem Jeffries might be about to make history but some critics fear that on one issue, at least, he will be on the wrong side of it.

The progressive New York congressman widely expected to lead the Democrats in the US House of Representatives will be the first person of color to head either party in the chamber. Jeffriesa election as House minority leader in the new Congress in January would also see the baton pass to a new generation of Democratic leaders as the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, 82, steps aside.

Monday the largest in-person early voting day as Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker neck and neck before 6 December election

The number of people casting early ballots in the runoff election for one of Georgiaas seats in the US Senate has already broken records since the process began on the weekend, with some counties posting staggeringly long wait times at early voting sites during the first days of early voting.

Reports on Mondayas turnout varied from more than 250,000 voters to more than 300,000 on the first day of statewide early operation of the polls. Some counties began earlier.

Officers charged with cruelty and endangerment after Randy Cox fractured neck when vehicle braked

Five Connecticut police officers have been charged with cruelly neglecting a Black man after he was partially paralysed in the back of a police van, despite his repeated and desperate pleas for help.

Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station on 19 June for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard at an intersection to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into a metal partition in the van.

US owners say theyave been on the receiving end of road rage, but it may be more about EVs than the CEO himself

Tesla lost at least one customer this weekend, after Alyssa Milano tweeted that she had returned her model for a Volkswagen electric vehicle, prompting jokes from Elon Musk and conservative commentators about the German manufactureras Nazi origin story. Milano said she had ditched Tesla due to Muskas ownership of Twitter.

While Tesla owners do not seem to be following the actoras move en masse, some note that they have been on the receiving end of road rage directed toward their vehicle choice.

Governor attends Monday ceremony as Chesapeake residents mourn diverse group

Hundreds gathered on Monday in Virginiaas second-largest city to honor six people killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart, with the stateas governor pledging to confront a amental health and a behavioral health crisisa.

Chesapeakeas candlelight vigil paid tribute to a diverse group of third-shift workers, ages 16 to 70, who unloaded trucks, broke down cardboard boxes and stocked shelves in this sprawling but tight-knit community near the coast.

Cochise county officials have endorsed claims of voter fraud despite no evidence of any problems

Republican officials in a rural Arizona county refused on Monday to certify the results of the 2022 midterm election, despite no evidence of anything wrong with the count from earlier this month.

Some officials who have embraced voter fraud theories held out, defying a state deadline and setting the stage for a legal battle.

First global analysis follows discovery of toxic pollution particles in lungs and brains of foetuses

Almost a million stillbirths a year can be attributed to air pollution, according to the first global study.

The research estimated that almost half of stillbirths could be linked to exposure to pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), mostly produced from the burning of fossil fuels.

aPhenomenala finds are named elaliite and elkinstantonite, and Canadian scientists are analysing third mineral

A team of researchers in Canada say they have discovered two new minerals a and potentially a third a after analysing a slice of a 15-tonne meteorite that landed in east Africa.

The meteorite, the ninth largest recorded at over 2 metres wide, was unearthed in Somalia in 2020, although local camel herders say it was well known to them for generations and named Nightfall in their songs and poems.